References

Information shapes substance and creates new pathways in the minds and bodies of the subjects who position themselves in relation towards the flow. We are what we read, eat, drink, watch, hear, and feel.

Special Agency maintains a list of formational references that help advance soma~cognitive reconfiguration practices and further develop ideological and methodological aspects of our work.

All of the works presented below are powerful cognitive stimulants. Not only because they elicit powerful effects (some of which are listed), but also because they divide the reality of the one who perceives into “before” and “after”.

In this list we are not interested in one-off hits, but, rather, in the references that have a long-lasting effect and positive influence on Special Agents’ practices. We also exclude material substances that should come into direct contact with the inside of the body to be experienced (such as drugs, liquids, foods, blood and semen).

The references are organized into categories, regularly updated, carefully selected, and sorted in no particular order. Some materials are available to the agents through our internal repository at the Special Agency locations worldwide and online.

The works are listed with the effects they have been shown to produce in the subjects who experience them. Those may vary from person to person, depending on their particular circumstance and constitution.

Publications

Aeon.Co →
One of the most thought-provoking and intelligent publications on the internet.

Quora →
Provides an answer to almost any question, often in a highly comprehensive and intelligent way.

Quartz →
Produces a heightened sense of awareness about the current state of events and connections between them.

N Plus One →
An in-depth and comprehensive analysis of culture, politics and inter~subjective relations.

032c →
The only fashion title that is stimulating in a way that is not only superficial.

Syg.ma →
An online journal (in Russian) on culture and humanity. Thought-provoking and deeply engaging especially for its presentational formats.

Books

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Blurs the border between dreams and reality, increases sensitivity to coincidences and signs.

Remainder by Tom McCarthy
A very good example of a narrative mirroring its own structure. Enhances awareness of traumatic tendencies and the dynamics of simulation and psychosis.

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
Improves comprehension of cultural and anthropological phenomena as well as the observational skills. Frequent intellectual orgasm response has been observed.

Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The notion of doing “good” applied in near-realistic circumstances. Has a pacifying effect on the one who reads and may cause permanent changes in behavior with the focus shifting from oneself towards the environment.

Steps to an Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson
Enhances the subject’s understanding of relational dynamics, psychological processes and schizophrenic behaviors. Produces a strong homeostatic effect.

The War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The reading subject has the experience of multiple points of view and constantly shifting perspective (both on subjective/personal and objective/political layers).

The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov
Produces a long-lasting (sometimes irreversible) ability to zoom in and zoom out on a certain perspective. Enhances fractal narrative view of the world.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Elicits a sense of interconnectedness between things, people, phenomena and beyond. Sensations of pleasure from the narrative structure.

Magic and Happiness by Giorgio Agamben
Dissolution of sense into speechless beauty.

Novel 11, Book 18 by Dag Solstad
Produces a strong impetus to explore one’s own sense of self to the fullest potential.

Mean Free Path by Ben Lerner
Aesthetic pleasure from watching shimmering narrative structure playing along the structural vertices of abstract dimensions. A sense of protracted engaged detachment from the object of observation.

The Computational Beauty of Nature by Garry Flake
Alters perception of natural phenomena translating them into mathematical representations.

Visual and Performative Experiences

Humor in Music by Reggie Watts →
Produces disorienting effect and polysingular awareness.

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Special Agency is Ways Ltd, a company registered in UK.
We produce events, publications, ideas, visual and audio artefacts, digital platforms and tools, as well as physical practices for soma~cognitive stimulation.